How Old Are These Kids Anyways?

Second!


Today we practiced (gulp!) writing. But it actually was not that bad, seeing as my group wrote an awesome thesis and finished strong with a supporting paragraph (...and got to leave 20 minutes early). 


We had to read and write about the most roller-coaster-of-emotion-like story EVER. It was, "The School," by Donald Barthelme. It's from a teacher's viewpoint, and it seems like the school has a curse of death upon it. Every school project (such as trees they planted and animals they have at least tried to take care of) has died. Not only that, but an unusual number of parents and grandparents (and even classmates!) have died. So the kids have become used to death and disappointment, and so they ask their teacher and teacher's assistant to show them what love is, that it can even still exist in such a place where sadness is abound (everyone knows that the teacher is "secretly" in love with his lovely teacher's assistant, anyways). So the teacher and assistant share a hug and a kiss on the forehead and the class cheers and is happy, and just then, the new class gerbil arrives. Fin.


This was a very interesting story because it never mentions how old the students are, but in the beginning, they are noted as planting trees, taking "care" of tropical fish, and chasing a puppy around the classroom, which would denote them as being in grade school, possibly 2nd or 3rd grade. Later, when asking their teacher about life versus death, they are noted as asking questions about existentialism and using words such as, "fundamental datum," which are things that no elementary school student I've ever heard of doing. So it naturally brings up the question, "How old are these kids, anyways???" How sad it is that they have had to grow up so rapidly because of all the loss and disappointment in their lives and that they have to ask their teacher for an example that love and happiness can even exist in such an environment. Another great topic for an inevitable paper.


Hopefully the school I find a job at will not be cursed with so much death and misery, but I also hope that my students would have the same confidence in me and that I could be so personable to them that they would be comfortable asking me such questions about life and happiness.


And that's all I have to say about that.

A Seemingly Simple Sestina

First!
It's the first blog post for my English 215 class (20-21st century literature), and it's a bit late, but the topic is the poem, "This Is Just To Say," by William Carlos Williams.

I've actually read this poem before, in a high school English class, and I am still intrigued at how famous this poem has become. When you look at it, you think, "Oh, it's just a little blurb someone wrote, and -what the heck- they didn't even bother with punctuation!"

Although it was such short a poem, there were a surprising number of views taken to it (and so many questions to be asked when you actually analyzed it). Maybe it was a revenge poem, like a husband-and-wife-passive-aggressive-family-feud thing? Maybe it was a note that a little kid left on the fridge to his mother because he was so hungry and a plum that she was probably saving for breakfast was all that was left at the time? Did the author actually feel remorse and was seeking forgiveness, even though the entire poem is about how delicious the plums were, save ONE line?

This one would be a fun paper topic to write about.